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More Muscle With X-Reps and Limited Sets, Part 1

Mike Mentzer doing a forced rep on a Nautilus pullover machine

In the last newsletter, you saw that extending sets with forced and negative reps, a la Mike Mentzer, crushes the nervous system and can derail muscle gains—if you’re not on drugs, that is… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: mike mentzer, nervous system, recovery ability, X Reps, x-reps

Unreal 5-Week Muscle Gains

Illustration showing where to perform X Reps on leg extension

Q: Excellent new ebooks. Your story about X-Reps and the gains you made in five weeks back in the day got me excited enough to try them. I didn’t realize what I was missing. I really feel those exercises working much better, and I’m already seeing results. Do you think the effectiveness of X-Reps will fade after a while? You mentioned [in the ebook] that it could be why you stopped doing them years ago. [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: fast-twitch fibers, hypertrophy, mass gains, muscle gains, X Reps

Add Reps, Not Sets, to Grow Like Crazy

Yesterday I mentioned that once Mike Mentzer retired from bodybuilding and began training drug-free bodybuilders, he got rid of forced and negative reps. They were too demanding, creating way too much damage… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: partial reps, partials, reps, sets, volume, X Reps, x-reps

Age and Muscle-Building Rage

Steve in a sleeveless T in his backyard

You know the stereotype of the grumpy old man. Sometimes it fits me like a glove.

Take this muscle-building thing, for example. Last October I significantly upgraded my pathetic home gym with a multi-functional cable unit. [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: age, home gym, mass building, motivation, muscle building, overtraining, X Reps

Mr. America’s 4X Mass Workout

Doug Brignole in a T-shirt at the beach flexing his biceps

I’ve mentioned that Mr. America and Drug-Free Mr. Universe Doug Brignole has been training differently lately. He’s now 62 years old—my age.

Here’s a nice sun’s-out-guns-out shot of him before judging a Muscle Beach contest in 2018 (Tony Redding photo)… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: failure, Mr. America, muscle beach, positive failure, X Reps

Resistance Bands for the Muscleman?

Man doing band chest press

Lately, I’ve been harping on the perfect resistance curve, mostly because I know the key ideal-exercise factors create efficiency of effort in the gym to build muscle quickly…

At my age, I don’t have time to waste with workouts longer than about 40 minutes 3 days a week. The lifetime finish line is looming… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: partials, range of motion, resistance bands, resistance curve, strength curve, X Reps

X-celerate Your Mass Gains With X-Reps

Tom Platz doing freehand sissy squats

In a previous newsletter I mentioned range of motion and how a target muscle is strongest near its stretch point and weakest at full contraction… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: extended tension time, mass gains, muscle fiber activation, tom platz, X Reps

2 Techniques to Transform Your Physique

Steve Holman before and after, 15 years old and 50 years old

Q: I’m 42 years old, on the thin side, and have been training for several years. I want to know if I’ll overtrain by taking my work sets to failure and then adding X-Rep partials to the end. Some experts seem say it will cause burnout and that you have to be juiced to stand that style of training. I’m natural, so I wonder how it would affect me. I want to buy your new X-Rep Update #1 ebook, but I don’t want the program and methods to be too much for me to handle.

A: Steve is over 60 years old and still making great gains with X Reps and X-hybrid tactics. He’s been thin all his life—his starting bodyweight was less than 120 pounds; however, with 3D Positions of Flexion training he restructured his physique—and by adding X Reps and X-hybrid techniques in his 40s, his muscles have gotten bigger and better (no steroids)… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: heavy/light, intensity, natural bodyguilding, overtraining, phase training, physique, pump, recovery, size principle of muscle fiber recruitment, subfailure, transformation, X Reps, x-hybrid techniques, x-rep partials

Double Your Muscle Growth With X-Factor Firepower

Incline barbell presses

Q: I’ve had phenomenal muscle-size gains and strength increases since switching over to X Reps. I gained five pounds my first month with them! My question is, Do those build more of the myofibril strands or sarcoplasm fluid [in the muscle fibers] that you guys have been talking about? And can I use X Reps on 4X sequences?

A: For the uninitiated, X Reps are eight-inch partials you do in the semi-stretch position at the end of a set to failure. For example, when no more full-range reps are possible on incline presses, you lower the bar to about two inches off your chest and fire up to just below the halfway point for about three to four controled X-Rep explosions… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: 20 pounds of muscle, 4X, dormant fibers, john balik, Mike Semanoff, muscle gains, myofibrillar growth, myofibrillar mass, protect your family, sarcoplasmic growth, sarcoplasmic size, self defense, testimonial, X Factor, X Reps, x-traordinary x-rep workout

Solving the Big-Muscle Puzzle

Jonathan Lawson doing dumbell shrugs

Q: Thank you for clearing up the muscle-growth mystery for me. I always believed in going heavier and heavier to get bigger. Now I know that’s only a small part of the puzzle. Working in the 4X method, X Reps, drop sets, and even some of your high-rep TORQ sets has already gotten me bigger in just a few weeks. My question is, Do you think some people get a better size response from power training and others get more size from density [endurance] work?

A: Absolutely. As we mentioned in a previous newsletter, the BIGGEST powerlifters don’t train for sarcoplasmic (endurance fluid) expansion yet have good muscle size. That’s because they were big dudes in the first place, which may signify more myofibril-building capacity. That would explain their extraordinary strength. The myofibrils are the actin-myosin strands inside the muscle fiber that generate force, but for most trainees that’s not the key to ULTIMATE SIZE… [Read more…]

Filed Under: X Files Tagged With: 10x10, 4x method, actin, bad gas, biotrust probiotic, drop sets, ectomorphs, fat burning, force generation, free probiotics, free supplements, glycogen, hardgainers, heavy sets, mass building, mitochondria, muscle building, muscle fullness, muscle growth, myofibrillar growth, myosin, powerlifters, pro-x10, sarcoplasmic expansion, tension overload, tension time, TORQ, X Reps, x-centric, x-hybrid techniques

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